It's time to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024. Often when the new year rolls around we hear plenty of advice on how to make some significant changes and how to make sure the upcoming year is better than the previous one. But at Flagstone this Sunday, we're going to approach the new year from a different angle? Instead of finding ways to make sure we have a healthy/productive new year, we're going to discover together how to have a lousy one!

It's time to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024. Often when the new year rolls around we hear plenty of advice on how to make some significant changes and how to make sure the upcoming year is better than the previous one. But at Flagstone this Sunday, we're going to approach the new year from a different angle? Instead of finding ways to make sure we have a healthy/productive new year, we're going to discover together how to have a lousy one!

Even when things are hectic and frazzled, there can be moments of calm in the middle of the chaos. When we look at the messiness of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, we can still see at least a moment of beauty and serenity and peace in the middle of the mess...because that's what God has always done. He quiets the storms. He calms the chaos. He even cleans up the mess.

Jesus' birth story seems to be messier than we would expect. For the King of the Universe to finally arrive here on this planet, why so messy and full of drama and underwhelming? In scripture we see that God consistently chooses the broken, messy, and underwhelming people and situations in to do his best work. In fact, he takes those very things and redeems and redefines them for his purposes. Can he do that in your life? You bet.

We all have different "messes" we have to deal with from time to time, especially when we make a hurtful choice or a wrong decision that becomes a problem of our own creation. But sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of a mess we didn't create. Someone else's choices, someone else's actions, or maybe just life itself causes us to find ourselves in the middle of a stressful or even hurtful situation that we might never have intended to experience. What do I do when I find myself in the middle of a mess I didn't make? And what can the story of the birth of Jesus teach me about dealing with problems I never expected?

In spite of all of our best intentions during the Christmas season, Christmas can have often have its share of messes. Some of the problems we have to deal with are the result of other people's choices and actions. What can be even more frustrating are the messes we create on our own. This Christmas we need to recognize that we have some difficult situations in our lives that in all honesty we have brought on ourselves. But we can also acknowledge and celebrate the fact that we have a Savior who came to walk into our messes and rescue us from them.

We say "grace" over a meal. We talk about a person who can handle stress as having "grace under pressure." Someone who does things in an effortless way is described as being "graceful." The word "grace" may have become so common to some of us that we have lost the wonder and the amazement we should experience when we think about the grace God has given us. When we truly recognize how amazing God's grace really is, it's actually indescribable!

The problem with our day to day lives, money, and aspirations in this life is that if we're not careful, we can let those things consume us. We become unable to function due to worry, we end up purchasing things we don't need just to feel good about ourselves, and we walk paths that can lead to destruction if left unchecked. So how can we combat getting overwhelmed and choked out by these things and put Jesus in his rightful place in our lives? Maybe it's as simple as seeking first His Kingdom and letting God take care of the rest.

Disconnection and distance can take place in any relationship, including my relationship with God. I can start out feeling close to Him, consistently feeling His presence around me, and then at some point I realize I've slowly faded away from that connection. How does that happen? What causes me to drift away from God, when I used to feel so close? And how do I reverse my slow fade away from Him?

Anger is a natural way for us to react when we feel we've been wronged in some way or something hurtful has happened to someone we care about. If we deal with that anger in a healthy way, it ceases to be a problem for us. But if we hold onto that bitterness and allow that frustration to continue to grow and fester inside of us, we find ourselves slowly fading into feelings of resentment. Why is resentment such a harmful emotion? And how do I reverse the slow fade into resentment when I'm still feeling angry and hurt?